Flipping through the pages of the 'Pride 09' magazine which recently hit the streets, locals might wonder why nothing about San Francisco Pride is in the edition - no features, no listings, no photos, no event information, no maps, no Grand Marshals, no stage line-ups, no accessibility information... This curious omission is no accident. The San Francisco Pride Celebration Committee was not asked to nor was involved in the production of the glossy magazine that was dropped on street corners throughout San Francisco. We are deeply concerned that community members will be left with the false impression that this magazine was officially sanctioned by San Francisco Pride, which it was not.

Adding insult to injury, the publication contains a shocking lack of diversity - the very thing for which Pride is so known. We are very concerned that a publication calling itself 'Pride 09' has no relationship to our local Pride Parade and Celebration and has no diversity. Our diversity is the reason that we gather as a community each year to celebrate at Pride.

How, then, is it possible for this publication to have asserted its claim to our community's long-standing ritual? Pride in whom? When our local community is as absent as diverse images of the people who make it up, we must ask ourselves if this publication has any relevance to the civil rights roots that gave birth to the Pride movement in the first place.

The 'Pride 09' magazine is not a reflection of our community's Pride event or of the Bay Area's LGBT community.

We wish everyone a wonderful Pride weekend and look forward to welcoming people from all over the world to this important celebration of our diversity.